Procedure(s): Crowns, Veneers

I am a very healthy 60 y.o. man but I have avoided dentists my whole life because of dental anxiety. The only time I would actually go to the dentist was when I was in excruciating dental pain and I would opt to have the offending tooth extracted because it got me in and out of the office as quickly as possible. As I lost teeth, I also lost the ability to eat normally as I no longer had contact points necessary for grinding of food. I lost my last critical chewing tooth 3-4 years ago. Since then my diet has consisted entirely of soft food. No steak, no ribs, no sausage, no bacon, no cheeseburgers – nothing that required chewing. Even food items like vegetables became almost impossible to eat. I should also mention that even when I had all of my teeth, they weren’t pretty to look at as they were small, uneven and many of them were misshaped. That’s the *mechanics of my teeth. Now let’s talk about the psychological component. Whether on a conscious level or subconscious level the *first thing we notice about another person is their teeth and knowing how bad my teeth looked seriously affected my self-esteem. I am a single man, but I had limited interaction with women and never smiled because I was always so self-conscious about my teeth. Several of the women I saw actually commented that I should really do something about my teeth. How’s that for humbling.